Little Falls transcript., 1887-03-11

fifteen years old, but few would have
believed it. His eyes still had that
faraway expression in them. He was
older than his years.
That was q winter long to be re-
membered. Grey uniforms were seen at
the last yearly meeting, held in Nov
ember, and the preachers at that
meeting spoke words that sounded
harshlv in our untutored ears.
Young women hummed warlike airs,
and were eager to catch the latest re-
train.
l remember how the crimson deep.
ened on Cousin Sues brown cheek
when she ratified off:
"Huzza! Huzza! for the bonnie blue flag so
dear,
Huzza! for the sword and plume that
southern soldiers wear!"
At the first frolic the fiddler wore g.
red feather in his hat and played
,"Dixie."
Men talked and women sang, and
the warm blood ran riot in the south
ern veins. "On to war;" "Oh, John
ME, aire you boun' to be Soldier?"
"Your waist, it is too slender,
Your hands they are to small,
And your cheeks too red and rosy,
To face a cannon ball
And sing oh+and sing oh.
Sure you will, my dean"
One wintry night the northern sky
burst into deep crimson, and we
knew that the supernatural fame of
aurora borealis was burning ON the
brow OF heaven. Doc said that was
the sign of war. Everything was the
sign OF war. We had noticed the ON
inous "W'' on the back of the locusts
IN the early autumn. Captain Jack
Rainey had muster every week, and
the tramp, tramp, tramp ofgathering
squadrons shattered the slumberous
depths OF the barrens.
knew that the Doc had met Lucy
Paxton at the frollc. and l knew that
he had followed her every movement
with q fascinated gaze. She was not
grown up, but she was most grown"
they all said. She was thirteen. aid
the young men chose her for a part
ner when they played "all around the
merry pole" and Doc sat and watch.
ed her.
These were stirring times.' Men and
women shattered the letters OF con-
ventionality and grew from boys to
men and from girls to women with
marvellous rapidly.
At q candy pulling Doc pulled candy
with her. The way of it was that they
all played lonesome" and they need
ed one more to be the lonesome
one" and he WAS induced, much
against his will, to join. His success
embo]dened him, and so the boy and
the girl pulled candy, and both were
so painfully conscious of their own
youthfulness, that they pulled IN 81
lence.
Lucy's brother John was nearly
eighteen. He was dutiful boy, and
his mother was a. widow. He worked
for her and for Lucy, and they lived
we'll.
Again. spring gladdened the earth
with her spirituelie beauty. But there
was not much boisterousness at the
annual "1ogrolling" as usual. nfact,
there were very few logrollings. Moth
ers and daughters and younger sons
pulled the fallen trees together the
best they could and burned them.
Women in big sunbonnets, kept from
Topping over their eyes by wooden
"splits' inserted in the crown, grasped
the plowhandles, while ''tucking
strings" girded about their waists
kept the skirts from trailing in the
dirt. All, they were made OF superior
mettle, these women of the barrens
were.
That spring We had to work
great deal harder and had less time for
fishing than before, Doc helped us.
He was Industrious, though still
weakling compared with other lads.
The first time 1 saw him twirl a
strand of golden lovevine over his
head and cast it on the bushes, / was
amused. Doc told me that be had
named it "Lucy. Paxton" and if it
grew, he would know that she loved
him, and if not he would be disap-
pointed. He was getting too deep for
our philosophy then.
A whole year rolled away, and on
the next spring Isaw that tha love
vine reappeared and grew on the bush
es. Doc saw it TOO, and be was pleas
edgreatly pleased. He was not an
ardent. lover. He Worshipped at a.
distance. The young fellows who
came home on furloughs were very
gallant and deferential toward Lucy.
This must have worried Doc, but he
never gave any sign. 4